Australia finds its Passchendaele

Kyt · Nov 23, 2008

I'm sorry but this film sounds like it is going to be another Pearl Harbor :frusty:

Australia finds its Passchendaele

Few would argue that there's anything wrong with an entertaining movie that's also good for you, just as a meal that is both healthy and tasty is the ideal. The problem comes when these two attributes are at odds; when "good taste" takes on a meaning both culinary and moral.

That would seem to be the case with Australia, the new film by Baz Luhrmann, whose last project was 2001's lush musical Moulin Rouge!, and who also helped usher in an era of lighthearted comedies from Down Under with the 1992 international hit Strictly Ballroom. But Australia, a two-and-three-quarter-hour epic that's already being compared to Gone with the Wind, is a very different beast with a lot riding on its back.

According to a story this week in the Sydney Morning Herald, Australia is being counted on to revive a flagging homegrown film industry, boost tourism, educate viewers about history (the film dramatizes the 1942 Japanese attack on Darwin), reignite a passion for "telling our own stories" and breathe new life into the career of its star, Nicole Kidman, who hasn't had a bona fide hit since 2002's The Hours.

Oh, and it wouldn't hurt if it were an unqualified box-office success. That's where the "tastes good" meets the "good for you" expectations.

If all these hopes and dreams sound familiar, it could be because they mirror those of a similar passion project much closer to home. Paul Gross's Passchendaele, which opened the Toronto International Film Festival before opening in wide release last month, is set during the First World War rather than the Second, but in many ways it's a similar tale of love told against the backdrop of a country finding its way in the world.

The parallels are striking, give or take $100-million. In Passchendaele (its $20-million budget said to be the biggest ever for a Canadian film), Gross plays a shell-shocked soldier who falls in love with a nurse (Caroline Dhavernas) amid the rustic beauty of the Rocky Mountain foothills, before both of them head back to the front and almost certain death. In Australia, (its $120-million budget said to be the biggest ever for an Australian film), Hugh Jackman plays a gruff cattle herder (or drover) who is won over by an English aristocrat (Kidman) in the breathtaking expanses of the Northern Territory, before fate sends them both to Darwin just as the Japanese attack.

In both films, the English are seen as villainous or at least misguided. Kidman's character arrives in Darwin very much a fish out of water, and only grows to understand the country under the drover's tutelage. In Passchendaele, Jim Mezon plays a British recruiting officer who proves far better at delivering fighting words than in fighting battles. And the Canadians do better at both.

Both pictures also pit New World sensibilities against Old World politics. Canada's involvement in the First World War was mostly the result of it being a dominion beholden to Britain. Similarly, Australia entered the Second World War on Sept. 3, 1939, the same day as the U.K. With their tranquil natural beauty for the most part far removed from the direct consequences of war, both countries engaged in battles that seemed to have little to do with their livelihoods.

You can feel each movie straining to connect its central love story (that's what gets the majority of screen time) with larger world events, with uneven success. And you can feel the critics, absent-mindedly humming Waltzing Matilda or The Maple Leaf Forever, trying to remain both patriotic and dispassionate.

A typical local review of Passchendaele by Jason Anderson in Toronto's Eye Weekly begins: "Gotta give the man respect for trying," and then goes on to list the homegrown cinema, tourism cinematography and "our stories" reasons for making the movie. Meanwhile, in Melbourne, The Age declared Australia "not a bad film" but "far from a great one, and certainly not one destined to be a classic."

Enjoyment of each is dependent upon a special suspension of disbelief. Relish the action as you would a well-cooked steak. Drink in the love story like a glass of fine wine. Appreciate the history as a somewhat bland but nourishing salad. I found Australia to be the heartier meal, but part of that may have been its exotic appeal - bison may be delicious, but if you've never had emu you're in for a treat. In fact, perhaps Australia and Passchendaele need to mount advertising campaigns in each other's countries, on the theory that the grass always looks greener on the other side of the Earth.
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Antipodean Andy · Nov 23, 2008

I will go to see the Jackman/Kidman film and am just hoping it is a nice story and an enjoyable film. If you have any doubts about seeing it, I'm told the scenery footage is superb. Having been in the Kimberley myself, I can vouch for that but if you haven't seen it before, it'll be worth the movie ticket alone.

Have always liked Paul Gross' work ever since Due South and have been hearing good things about his film.

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Australia finds its Passchendaele

Kyt Άρης

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Kyt Άρης

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